‘Fusion’ targets Hispanics, 2016

Fusion, the new cable channel aimed at Latino millennials, debuts next week — and the network is already betting it can shake up media coverage of the 2016 presidential campaign.

With traditional primetime news reports and shows, a nightly satire block, and original programs, the English-language network from ABC News and Univision, which launches on Monday, is making a major play for one of the most sought after demographics in media and politics. And if the experiment that is geared toward a young Hispanic audience works, the network could make a major impact on the political news landscape, according to media experts, campaign operatives, and members of the Fusion team.

Text Size

-

+

reset

Of course, there’s high risk in launching a new network and trying to break into the heavily saturated world of 24-hour cable news. Some experts also say that targeting Latino youth is tricky, particularly with an all-English approach because many like to have Spanish as at least part of the conversation.

But Fusion, headquartered in the Miami suburb of Doral, Fla., has an advantage, say several Hispanic media analysts: There is simply nothing else quite like it on TV. And with a major digital operation accompanying its TV programming available on several cable distributors, including Cox, Cablevision, Verizon FiOS and AT&T U-verse, Fusion has a shot at convincing a phone-obsessed generation to tune into its political coverage.

For Jorge Ramos — the host of “Noticiero Univision” and “Al Punto” on Univision, who will also be anchoring Fusion’s flagship primetime program — the new network offers the best opportunity to bring issues that dominate Spanish-language media into the country’s English-speaking political conversation.

If Fusion finds success, politicians and campaigns won’t be able to ignore it, Ramos said — and 2016 will be a much different race with the network in the game.

“Sometimes we’ve felt that we were invisible,” Ramos, whose Fusion program “America” will be his first English-language newscast, said of the U.S. Hispanic community. “And we are invisible, I would say, for three years, and then they rediscover us every four years, around election time, and then they forget about us again. I call it the Christopher Columbus syndrome, it happens all the time, they rediscover us every four years. And hopefully Fusion is going to stop that.”

“If we are successful, I think we can change the way politics is being covered in 2016,” he told POLITICO in a recent interview. “We’re always trying to be noticed and be visible, and if Fusion is working fine, in 2016 all the candidates would want to be on Fusion to reach the Hispanic community and the young audience.”

Fernand Amandi, managing partner at the Miami-based consulting firm Bendixen & Amandi International, which handled President Barack Obama’s 2012 national Hispanic outreach, said “it goes without saying” that Fusion will be an important booking for candidates and campaigns if the network takes off.

“If it’s successful, it’s a game changer for a very simple reason,” said Amandi. “The challenge has always been that segment of the Hispanic electorate, which is the fastest growing segment — young, U.S. born Hispanics that speak a little bit of both languages, but are far and away more comfortable in English and are English dominant — how do you target a message to them?”

There’s never been a vehicle for campaigns and candidates to specifically zero in on that slice of the voting population before, Amandi said. “And I think that’s what makes it such a provocative and potentially enticing platform which campaigns, candidates and issue advocates will potentially use to target and cultivate a very important and growing segment of the American electorate,” he added.

Viewers should expect to see a cable channel with a “more aggressive” approach to journalism than what’s currently available from other media, Ramos said.

“I get the sense that many of the things that we see on mainstream media are too bland,” Ramos said. “That when I’m listening to interviews, that sometimes it seems too cordial, too nice. And I think every once in a while we need a little more aggressive journalism.”

Take immigration reform, for instance. Ramos, who made a splash in 2012 during an interview with Obama by noting the president’s failure to get comprehensive immigration reform — “You promised that, and a promise is a promise,” Ramos told Obama. “And with all due respect, you didn’t keep that promise” — said one of the major ways Fusion will stand out in the packed media market is by bringing a “young, pro-immigrant point of view” to its coverage.